Modelling of farm-gate nitrogen balance in dairy farming – case study of Latvia

It is predicted that the demand for dairy products in the world will continue to grow in the next decade, and Latvian dairy products have growth potential in international markets. The European Green Deal aims to boost efficient use of resources by moving to a clean, circular economy and stop climate change, and revert biodiversity loss. The very significant element of it is the EU taxonomy for sustainable activities. The taxonomy stipulates that economic activity can qualify as environmentally sustainable only if it substantially contributes to one or more environmental objectives. In case of agriculture, especially dairy farming, there are limited options how to make substantial contribution. Although it is likely that several options will be available, ensuring sustainable farm-gate nitrogen balance could be the most realistic option, especially for intensive dairy farms. The Platform on Sustainable Finance has proposed several indicators how to measure farm-gate nitrogen balance, e.g. nitrogen surplus (also called nitrogen balance), nitrogen use efficiency (NUE). At present there is a lack of evidence based knowledge about farm-gate nitrogen balance in Latvia’s dairy farming. The aim of the study was to model the farm-gate nitrogen balance and examine nitrogen surplus and NUE for several types of dairy farms (depending on the herd size and management practice). The input data for modelling were derived from results of the previous research carried out by the authors. The criteria of maximum nitrogen surplus and minimum NUE proposed by the platform were applied to assess the results of the modelling. The results of the study indicate that it could be challenging for Latvia’s dairy farms to meet the maximum nitrogen surplus and especially the minimum NUE. These challenges are particularly considerable for dairy farms that have low productivity and that have high dependency on purchased feed.